Home United States USA — Political Why reports of Tillerson's pending ouster are not 'laughable'

Why reports of Tillerson's pending ouster are not 'laughable'

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Trump have seriously disagreed publicly many times.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson might claim that reports he’s being forced out by the White House are “laughable,” but it’s clear he and President Trump have disagreed publicly on multiple issues and that their relationship appears strained.
Here are some examples:
In October, Trump went on Twitter to sneer at his top diplomat’s efforts to bring North Korea to the negotiating table to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon to threaten the U. S. mainland.
“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiated with Little Rocket Man,” Trump said. “Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!”
Three days later, NBC News reported that Tillerson called Trump a “moron” after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon, and that he was so frustrated over policy disagreements that he was considering resigning from his post.
That day, the former ExxonMobil CEO called a press conference. He denied that he ever considered resigning, but did not deny disparaging the president. “I’m not going to deal with petty stuff like that,” he said.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said he did not use “that type of language” to describe Trump, and the president that day called the report “fake news.”
Tillerson was in favor of staying in the historic climate change agreement to curb global emissions but Trump opted to pull out June 1.
Tillerson later told senators he still supported the accord and had pushed to keep the U. S. in it. “My view didn’t change,” Tillerson said on June 13.
In September, Tillerson said U. S. participation in the Paris agreement could resume under new terms.
“The president said he is open to finding those conditions where we can remain engaged with others on what we all agree is still a challenging issue,” Tillerson told CBS’s Face the Nation .
Tillerson backed keeping the U. S. in the landmark 2015 agreement between Iran, the U. S. and five other world powers by former president Barack Obama. Trump on Oct. 13 refused to certify that Iran was complying with the deal and left it in the hands of Congress.
Tillerson later told CNN that the U. S. is trying to stay in the nuclear deal, which Trump blasted as an “embarrassment” and as “the worst deal ever negotiated” during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“We’re going to stay in,” Tillerson said Oct. 16. “We’re going to work with our European partners and allies to see if we can’t address these concerns.”
Trump and his Secretary of State have also spoken differently about whether to move the U. S. embassy from Tel Aviv, where nearly all other nations keep their embassies, to Jerusalem, the Israeli capital that Palestinians also want for a capital of a future state.
Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September 2016 that, if elected, he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided capital.”
Tillerson said in May that Trump was considering “what impact would such a move have” on a peace initiative the White House would like to get started.
The decision “will be informed by the parties involved in those talks, and Israel’s view, whether Israel views it as helpful to a peace initiative or perhaps a distraction,” Tillerson told NBC’s Meet the Press .
The White House has not followed through on the pledge since Trump took office, but said in June “the question is not if that move happens, but only when.”
Multiple media outlets have reported that the White House may announce as early as next week a plan to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel .

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